Walking down the aisle to the melody of bellowing cattle is not everyone's ideal wedding, but as agritourism and rural events grow in popularity, farmers are cashing in.Population growth and COVID lockdowns spurred an increase in domestic tourism over the past two yearsThey say juggling income streams can be tough, but offers greater financial security
The owner of Henderson Park near Yeppoon, Ryan Anderson, was ahead of the curve when he and his wife Niki expanded their cattle property into a farm stay and event venue two decades ago. "Being a fairly small operation here, we needed to look at what sort of potential off-farm income options there were."
"It is a pretty good location for guests … it gives them an experience that's different," Mr Anderson said."People get a lot out of it, especially overseas people … because they just don't get exposure to anywhere else.""The diversity away from the ag into the tourism business actually really swung around the other way when COVID hit," he said.
"There has been steady growth in regional populations — higher growth than most people were expecting," he said."But suddenly we started to hear things about places being booked early and with more bookings than ever before.
Ha ha, play on words Weather the drought